Just re watching video blog 3 and around 8.31 there's a shot of plates being thrown around Bilbo's dinner table. I have always thought that Chip the Glasses would be one of the songs to get cut, simply for time and pacing reasons and the fact that scene has so much to accomplish anyway. But it sure looks like that song is in to me. Any thoughts? So Frodo Baggins boarded the great ship and passed on into the west till the sweet fragrance on the air filled his sense and the sound of singing came over the water. Then it seemed to him that, as in a dream, he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country. The third age of Middle Earth was over, the days of the Rings had passed and the story and song of those times was at an end.

Namely that as careless as they seemed to be with the plates, it would be out of place for them to sing it; The song is, after all, about what they shouldn't do to Bilbo's plates, and they actually take care not to ruin anything while singing it.

Not likely, though, as it looks like they are deliberately smashing things in that shot on the vlog. My question is: where is Gandalf while they proceed to ruin everything? Will it not hurt his character a tad to show that he has absolutely no control over the dwarves - to the point that they deliberately destroy their hosts' cookware?

I really want humor in these films, but I hope it is not the kind that diminishes the characters.

maybe gandalf is just drinking alongside with them, at least i think it isn't mentioned in the book that he does react in any way to the chaos that so many dwraves cause. i think to show gandalf drinking and having fun doesn't hurt his character, he was even dancing on bilbo's party in the fellowship i think. to see that the wizard can drink and have fun with the other peoples will make him even more sympathic. while it is not yet said that they'e destroying bilbo's things...

but, i love to see them drunk. and being drunk it's natural that they go a little crazy, but i think it's dependant on their character how crazy they actually go. for example balin or nori will have their selves under control while dwalin or bifur you know...

right now i could figure it out this way: since we only see some of the dwarves in the scene, some(including gandalf) are helping bilbo do the dishes or search their beds or are outside smoking or whatever, and those inside are messing around. and on the next moning bilbo will have troubles cleaning in all up so he won't be able to read the message that they've already gone towards the green dragon...

Gandalf isn't a drinker, and if he was he wouldn't be affected by the alcohol. He is a lesser god for goodness sake. I think it would be more fitting for him to sit and smoke his pipe while the dwarves is on a rampage.

I don't remember seeing the mentioned vlog scene and I don't realy want to spoil myself too much, but couldn't it be that the plates will be replaced by CGI versions before getting smashed, so that it looks as if they pull off all the throwing and catching in the finished movie, but in reality most of the plates are getting broken? "The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that terrible in-between."

Has anyone considered that Peter Jackson, aware of this question about what they'll put in the movie, actually staged this little bit specifically for the video as a joke? Or at least the cameras caught the actors playing their parts from the book for some spontaneous set levity? It's possible.

I know that in the video blog we saw the dwarves throwing the plates - but if you look closely they are actually throwing them past the camera. To us watching the Vlog it looks like the Dwarves are destroying Bilbo's plates as there are plates all over the ground etc.

But I think that this shot, edited into the flim, could be the Dwarves throwing the plates to each other, catching them, washing them and putting them away - just like the book.

Bilbo will be bewildered, watching his precious stuff flying all over the place, but when the dust settles everything is fine.

I like that idea. If the dwarves were actually breaking stuff, it drops them down a notch and starts to turn them into silly goofballs instead of proud dwarves on a quest to reclaim their heritage (yes, they have to have a bit of silliness, but smashing up Bilbo's stuff just doesn't fit). What I like best about that part of the book is that Bilbo really thinks they're going to ruin everything, but they don't. Bilbo, Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins, He's only three feet tall. Bilbo, Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins, The bravest little hobbit of them all.

For nothing. They are all in full costume, acting their parts, and are on a schedule. My guess is that this is definitely a scene from the movie. It's certainly far more likely, probability-wise, that this is for a scene, and not just for fun.

If you watch the sequence in the Vlog, it really doesn't look at all like there is filming going on. It looks like horsing around. Which these guys do a lot of in and out of costume (unless you think that, for instance, Bombur playing air guitar and drums is going to be in the films). 'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'

You can see that the dishes DON'T break when they hit the ground. So what would be point of showing them breaking dishes that don't actually break?

And actually some of the people who are throwing the dishes aren't even IN costume. Watch it again; it clear is not a scene being filmed. 'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'